DARLEY ABBEY, on the river Derwent and on the road to Belper,
3 miles north from Derby railway station, is a chapelry, in the Southern
division of the county, hundred of Morleston and Litchurch, Derby
union, County court district and petty sessional division, rural deanery
of Duffield, archdeaconry of Derby and diocese of Southwell. The church
of St. Matthew is a building of stone, consisting of chancel, nave
and a western tower, with pinnacles, containing one bell and a clock,
erected by the late Walter Evans esq. : in the church is a marble
monument to the founder, d. 9 Sept, 1839, and to Elizabeth,
his wife, d. 19 March, 1836 ; there are many other memorials
to different members of the same family, and one of marble to the
Rev. William Warde Fowler M.A. some time curate of this church, d.
4 April, 1843. The register dates from the year 1819. The living is
a vicarage, endowed chiefly by the late Walter Evans esq. gross yearly
value £350, with residence, in the gift of Sir Thomas William
Evans bart and Walter Evans esq, and held since 1876 by the Rev. Charles
Brittan M.A. of St. John's College, Cambridge, and rural dean of Duffield.
A good vicarage house was erected in 1880 by the late Miss Evans,
of Darley House. Here is an extensive paper manufactory, and a large
cotton mill, in which several hundred persons are employed. Darley
Abbey, the seat of Walter Evans esq. M.A., J. P. is a handsome mansion
of brick, on the west bank of the Derwent, in a small but well-wooded
park and with tastefully laid out pleasure grounds. Walter Evans esq.
and Sir Thomas William Evans bart. are lords of the manor and principal
landowners, the ancient abbey of St. Mary was founded before 1112
by Hugh, Dean of Derby, for canons of the order of St. Austin. Its
revenues were estimated at the Dissolution at £258. The soil
is sandy loam ; subsoil, marl and clay, and the land is chiefly pasture
: the acreage is 216; rateable value, £4,202; the population
in 1881 was 945.